HBO series: The newsroom

RendeR · 06-25-2012, 12:37 AM

Anyone else watch the opening episode? I'm not a huge fan of the lead actor and to be honest the guy playing his boss scares me in that he looks like he'll keel over at any moment.

However the show itself is VERY entertaining. The setting is interesting, there is so much detail in place that it really feels like you're watching a real newsroom.

I'm not normally one to jump on a random tv series but this one impressed me.

Thoughts?

sabotai · 06-25-2012, 01:36 AM

I liked it. I generally do like Sorkin's work, except his characters are sometimes a bit...off.

Like with the episode tonight. When things were getting hectic and everyone was rushing to get the show together, the main character stops and yells "Hold on!.......seriously, I have a blog?"

That character doesn't strike me as the type of person who, after spending the vast majority of the day pissed off, is going to just crack a joke like that. He seems like a smart ass. He'll be sarcastic when he can. But to just stop everyone and make a joke like that....didn't seem like him. Sorkin forces all of his characters to make out-of-character jokes from time to time. If he thinks it's funny, he'll make his characters say it, whether it's in-character for them or not.

That's generally the issue I have with most of his characters. They all have a layer that is unique to them, but then he places another a layer on top of them. That second layer is the same for all of his characters. Eventually they all talk the same, make the same jokes, etc.

But, that complaint aside, I loved Sports Night, I liked the West Wing and I'm sure I'll enjoy this show.

That they are having it set a few years in the past and using real past events....I'm not sure about that either. It's easy to make your characters sound awesome when you know all of the facts of a real event. Plus, we'll know the outcome of the events beforehand too so we'll know if the characters are making a mistake or not. So I guess we'll see how that turns out.

I'm also wondering which character will get the occasional episode where they narrate the episode while writing an email....

larrymcg421 · 06-25-2012, 01:58 AM

We've already had several Sorkin cliches:

*Big controversial speech in the pilot.
*Main character who can't remember staffer names.
*The Jeremy/Sam character is being played by Alison Pill.
*Exes with awkward history now having to work together.
*Sam Waterston = Isaac/Leo

I won't be surprised if Alison Pill's father has been cheating on her mother for many years, especially since we kept hearing about her parents in the pilot.

I hated the first half, but it got better once they got to the news part of the show and started to try and break the story (memories of Studio 60 which was good when it was about a TV show and not when it was randomly about the war in Afghanistan). I think it's kinda a copout to have Will McAvoy as a moderate Republican, which I really think was done only so Sorkin can have a bigger soapbox to stand on.

chadritt · 06-25-2012, 03:23 AM

Loved it. It certainly helped that I was stationed in Venice LA with the shrimp boat fishermen for 6 weeks so I know what this story meant but MAN I loved that premiere.

Logan · 06-25-2012, 08:06 AM

Passed on it due to the generally negative reviews but I'll probably end up watching the premiere on demand soon. I did read that it was by far the best of the four episodes sent out to reviewers.

spleen1015 · 06-25-2012, 09:14 AM

I thought it was awesome, very entertaining.

Suicane75 · 06-25-2012, 09:36 AM

When Sorkin is on, he's moving, thought provoking and pretty damn brilliant. But when he's off, even slightly, it can veer into silliness. I saw some of both in the premiere episode.

I'm going to keep watching but as Larry pointed out, if you've watched any of Sorkins shows before you aren't really watching anything new, and I'm not sure I'm up for Emily Mortimor playing Dana Whitaker.

Suicane75 · 06-25-2012, 09:39 AM

Oh, and I'm sure Sam Waterston is a great actor or he's just old, but his character frightened the hell out of me.

GrantDawg · 06-25-2012, 11:22 AM

I enjoyed it. It is very much a Sorkin clone, but it was a fun watch.

kcchief19 · 06-25-2012, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

We've already had several Sorkin cliches:

*Big controversial speech in the pilot.
*Main character who can't remember staffer names.
*The Jeremy/Sam character is being played by Alison Pill.
*Exes with awkward history now having to work together.
*Sam Waterston = Isaac/Leo

There was plenty of Sorkinese everywhere. He did a better job with recycling lines. Will's speech parallel's Josh's gaffe in the West Wing pilot and the opening meltdown of Studio 60.

I felt like The Newsroom has more of a Social Network feel than a West Wing feel, recurring themes and characters aside. Perhaps the HBO effect, making this feel more like a film than a TV show.

The biggest complaint you will see about this show is that it is too idealistic and lacks realism. Frankly, I don't think idealism is a criticism. If you want realism, I remind you this is not a documentary.

sabotai · 06-25-2012, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suicane75

and I'm not sure I'm up for Emily Mortimor playing Dana Whitaker.

I'm up for Emily Mortimor doing just about anything.

larrymcg421 · 06-25-2012, 05:34 PM

whomario · 06-25-2012, 05:53 PM

full pilot made available by hbo, youtube link : www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4ZhFDFYvE

kcchief19 · 06-25-2012, 09:45 PM

That Sorkinisms Supercut is awesome.

I'd like to think that Sorkinism fit into one of three categories. First are simply phrases that he likes -- more and more we expected less and less from each other, for example. The second group is filler material, bridges, transitions, etc. that is just part of his style.

But I think the largest group is the lazy group. The guy is notorious on his TV shows of doing too much of the writing himself and being behind schedule. That was the driving reason for him getting axed from The West Wing and a factor in ABC not renewing SportsNight. As a result, he steals from himself. I've noticed his films tend to have less lazy writing than his TV scripts, which tend to pull materials from the movies and plays.

If he has time to work on The Newsroom, we may see less Sorkinese.

terpkristin · 06-25-2012, 10:18 PM

I recorded it. Bummed the first episode isn't on HBO On Demand yet. I recorded the HD version but wanted to watch in my room, which is a standard def box. I know I could probably get it on my iPad via YouTube or HBO Go, but wanted to watch on a slightly bigger screen. Oh well, always tomorrow.

/tk

Scoobz0202 · 06-25-2012, 10:31 PM

Just watched the first episode, and I definitely enjoyed it.

What have the criticisms of it been? The only thing I am unsure of is if Jeff Daniels will be able to pull it off.

DaddyTorgo · 06-25-2012, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by terpkristin

I recorded it. Bummed the first episode isn't on HBO On Demand yet. I recorded the HD version but wanted to watch in my room, which is a standard def box. I know I could probably get it on my iPad via YouTube or HBO Go, but wanted to watch on a slightly bigger screen. Oh well, always tomorrow.

/tk

#firstworldproblems

Bad-example · 06-25-2012, 11:36 PM

I'm curious about this one but I'm gonna wait until a few episodes stack up before diving in.

Logan · 06-26-2012, 08:15 AM

I watched it last night and enjoyed it. The pacing was good but I can see it getting exhausting over time. The whole part about the Sr. Producer getting calls from the two best people on the entire planet to break that story was weak though and I hope they don't repeat those angles.

Peregrine · 06-26-2012, 10:08 AM

Definitely enjoyed it - I am a huge Emily Mortimer fan so that just seals the deal.

RendeR · 06-26-2012, 11:49 AM

Good god I'm only halfway through the supercut and I want to hang myself

BillJasper · 06-26-2012, 01:37 PM

Started strong, finished strong but the middle third was tedious to get through.

Pyser · 06-26-2012, 02:24 PM

felt long to me but i thought daniels was really good. ill keep watching.

panerd · 06-28-2012, 12:36 PM

Enjoyed the first epiosode a lot. Just saw an ad though when I was watching another show and it looked like Daniels was about to break the Gab Giffords story. I hope this doesn't end up being the genius that is always in front of the news because "he doesn't play by the rules" and seeing how this is set in the past it looks like it might be headed in that direction. We will see but HBO rarely lets me down.

Suicane75 · 07-02-2012, 12:12 PM

So the 2nd episode left me.......bewildered? Some of it was really awesome, mostly the scenes on air and that revolved around Daniels. Some scenes were insufferable, mostly the ones that involved the young girl. And some scenes left me wondering how they made air since they are pretty much EXACTLY scenes from earlier Sorkin works. While Larrys clip above was humorous and telling, I was amazed how much of this episode was lifted directly from stuff he's already done. I guess if you've never seen West Wing or SportsNight it would hit you differently but as someone who watched them both religiously, I came across completely unimpressed and downright irritated by at least 30% of the episode. And I'm not even talking about the fact that the same character types are being used, but by the lifting of almost entire scenes.

kcchief19 · 07-02-2012, 03:07 PM

My review of the second episode isn't quite as harsh but I don't think it's widely off mark either. There were certainly some scenes and dialogue you knew what was coming if you know Sorkin's work.

This episode felt to me that like Sorkin is still not quite ready to write a full 60-mintue show yet as opposed to a 42-minute show with commercials. The first episode was essentially a double-episode or a pilot movie. I'm guessing the shooting script was closer to two hours and they simply edited it down.

This episode seemed padded. Scenes went on much longer than they needed to be. I think if you edited this episode down to 42 minutes, you'd have a great episode.

The scene where Maggie and Jim go back and forth regarding the pre-interview for Brewer was agonizing. Forget the "realism" of that scene in a newsroom -- a person with Maggie's experience would never give her boss that much pushback. And they certainly wouldn't do it in the middle of a cube farm with everyone virtually paying no attention. Unless on WW or SN they would transition scenes to offices, editing bays, etc. so there wasn't this awkwardness.

kcchief19 · 07-02-2012, 03:09 PM

Funny, I was looking at IMDB and just discovered that Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) as a youth played Tyler, the teenager volunteer who was helping Josh, Toby and Donna try to catch up with the plane and get back to DC after they got left behind by the motorcade during the campaign stop in Indiana.

DaddyTorgo · 07-02-2012, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcchief19

This episode felt to me that like Sorkin is still not quite ready to write a full 60-mintue show yet as opposed to a 42-minute show with commercials. The first episode was essentially a double-episode or a pilot movie. I'm guessing the shooting script was closer to two hours and they simply edited it down.

This episode seemed padded. Scenes went on much longer than they needed to be. I think if you edited this episode down to 42 minutes, you'd have a great episode.

Hadn't thought this through, but I think you're spot-on. HBO should do something about this. Maybe cut it shorter (not 42 minutes, but not the 53 or whatever that it is), and use the spare time on little bits.

sabotai · 07-02-2012, 03:12 PM

15 minutes in, and I was tired of being preached at. I thought the episode was terrible (not solely because the preaching, but annoying me the first 15 minutes didn't help me get into the last 45 minutes, which sucked all around anyway.)

Solecismic · 07-02-2012, 03:42 PM

I was looking forward to it, with my journalism background. I lasted about 12 minutes.

First, the preaching was annoying - I thought it was a disingenuous and simplistic use of statistics, straight from what we call the Daily Kos PoV. There are more cogent and honest ways to make that kind of argument.

And, second, which is even more of a killer for me, there was heavy use of vomit cam. Sorkin was pretty good about that with SportsNight, which I loved.

I think Sorkin is a great writer, but, for me, it's a big whiff.

Suicane75 · 07-02-2012, 03:45 PM

Go back and watch the scene in SportsNight where Natalie gets mad at everyone because they're babying her after she gets assaulted, just replace her and Jeremy with Maggie and Jim.

The email thing was absurdly telegraphed to the point of cringe.

If they had cut everything from the entire episode except Daniels scenes I think it would have pretty good.

DaddyTorgo · 07-02-2012, 03:47 PM

Yeah - Daniels is definitely carrying the show / the only interesting character. I guess the ex-wife is second. But everyone else ::cringe:: GTFO

Suicane75 · 07-02-2012, 03:50 PM

It's literally a mix tape of SportsNight & West Wing. Mix tape isn't even the right word, it's a mash up or whatever those things are called where they layer one artist over the other. And it's not impressive.

sabotai · 07-02-2012, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solecismic

First, the preaching was annoying - I thought it was a disingenuous and simplistic use of statistics, straight from what we call the Daily Kos PoV. There are more cogent and honest ways to make that kind of argument.

I would have been fine (although probably still a bit annoyed) with it if I felt like it was the character doing the preaching. I'd imagine in most newsrooms, there's plenty of "Daily Kos PoV" people running around. But it was just oh so perfectly set up that it felt like Sorkin was preaching to me, not the character preaching to another character.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suicane75

The email thing was absurdly telegraphed to the point of cringe.

Yeah, that wasn't predictable at all.

kcchief19 · 07-02-2012, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Yeah - Daniels is definitely carrying the show / the only interesting character. I guess the ex-wife is second. But everyone else ::cringe:: GTFO

Sam Waterston has had the best scenes for me. I thought he stole every scene he was in during the pilot, but we don't see him enough in episode two.

I do fear that setting the show in the near past is going to sink Sorkin. Granted, I don't think that many conservatives are going to watch a Sorkin show anyway. But this just sets up too many opportunities for Sorkin to get knocked for playing politics, getting things wrong and oversimplifying things.

In the pre-show press, pretty much all the actors have said their favorite scenes are when they are doing control room/broadcast scenes, and that definitely shows. Everyone is much more engaged and livelier during these scenes.

Simbo Klice · 07-02-2012, 11:43 PM

I'm officially out on this show. The mass e-mail was the most contrived thing I can recall watching on TV. Even without that, I was reaching my breaking point with the super snappy dialogue and the cases of extreme happenstance (my college roommate and sister work for BP and Halliburton or whoever, I used to date the governor's aide and he happened to misspeak in the exact way that allowed me to make a witty crack at his expense and piss him off to ruin our chances of an interview)... Just look at that in print and it's overwrought. This show is begging to be ripped apart in an SNL skit.

stevew · 07-03-2012, 03:52 AM

I'm probably going to wait til this season is over and do a hatewatch marathon of this.

GrantDawg · 07-03-2012, 12:33 PM

This episode was quite preachy, and predictable. Still, the interaction between Daniels and Mortimer is excellent.

timmynausea · 07-03-2012, 12:37 PM

I like this way more than Studio 60. There have been some annoying moments and certain scenes and sequences have dragged on for too long, but Jeff Daniels is awesome, and I still like it on the whole.

Sweed · 07-03-2012, 12:50 PM

As someone that has never watched any of Sorkin's work, nor did I even know his name before reading this thread, I am enjoying the show. Too me it's still a bit in the "establish the characters" time frame. Loving Daniels and willing to give the rest of the cast time to catch up\establish their character.

Agree episode 2 was long-winded but I guess, again as someone unfamiliar with Sorkin, I attributed that more to getting the show established than shoddy writing.

I'll probably hang around for the whole season and see how it develops.

RendeR · 07-03-2012, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweed

As someone that has never watched any of Sorkin's work, nor did I even know his name before reading this thread, I am enjoying the show. Too me it's still a bit in the "establish the characters" time frame. Loving Daniels and willing to give the rest of the cast time to catch up\establish their character.

Agree episode 2 was long-winded but I guess, again as someone unfamiliar with Sorkin, I attributed that more to getting the show established than shoddy writing.

I'll probably hang around for the whole season and see how it develops.

This is pretty much where I am as well. I never watched west wing or as far as I can tell any of his other attempts so teh repetitiveness isn't bothering me since its still new...to me?

Its definitely got a preachy vein and they have got to stop telegraphing the obvious derp moves like the email. BUt on the whole I'm enjoying it.

DaddyTorgo · 07-03-2012, 05:23 PM

I didn't watch enough West Wing to be bugged by it, so I guess I think it's alright, although the last episode seemed, as noted earlier, like it had too much "filler" and would have benefitted from being a lil shorter.

cubboyroy1826 · 07-05-2012, 11:19 AM

Really enjoyed the first episode and have not seen the second episode. Sure the start was a little preachy but I like the idea of going back to cover events that have happened but will see how it plays out in other episodes.

digamma · 07-06-2012, 06:35 PM

The second episode was borderline unwatchable. In fact, my wife left the room to watch the Bachelorette on DVR. Her quote: "I'm so distracted by the way they are talking, I'm not even listening to what they are saying. The Bachelorette cast talks much slower and repeats the same things over and over again."

BrianD · 07-06-2012, 06:51 PM

I didn't think the second episode was all that bad. Plenty of similar conversations and themes from other Sorkin shows, but familiar Sorkin is still better than a lot of what is on TV these days.

lcjjdnh · 07-09-2012, 08:55 PM

I'm just hate-watching this show at this point. The eyeroll+groan/minute ratio must be near an all-time record. The opening monologue last night was unbearable.

Suicane75 · 07-09-2012, 09:01 PM

This episode cemented my feelings on the show. Love every scene with Waterston and Daniells, hate the holly hell out of everything else, including Emily Mortimor, who appears to be acting in a 4th grade play.

DaddyTorgo · 07-09-2012, 09:21 PM

I'm really getting bored/irritated already with the rehashing of RL news. Just seems sort of gimmicky or something. Would honestly be better if it was all fictional and they could actually use politicians as characters. Instead it's a weird mix of "let's reference RL politicians, but then have made-up minor ones when we need interview subjects."

stevew · 07-09-2012, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcjjdnh

I'm just hate-watching this shoe at this point. The eyeroll+groan/minute ratio must be near an all-time record. The opening monologue last night was unbearable.

I might hold off on hate watching until the second season with Arab Spring, Bin Laden and Occupy comes out. That will be glorious.

Peregrine · 07-09-2012, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I'm really getting bored/irritated already with the rehashing of RL news. Just seems sort of gimmicky or something. Would honestly be better if it was all fictional and they could actually use politicians as characters. Instead it's a weird mix of "let's reference RL politicians, but then have made-up minor ones when we need interview subjects."

Totally agree - understand why they wanted set in a real world environment, but it seems they didn't really think things through - fictional would be a lot better. And Mortimer in the last episide was absolutely terrible.

06-25-2012, 01:58 AM	#3
larrymcg421 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Georgia	We've already had several Sorkin cliches: Big controversial speech in the pilot. Main character who can't remember staffer names. The Jeremy/Sam character is being played by Alison Pill. Exes with awkward history now having to work together. Sam Waterston = Isaac/Leo I won't be surprised if Alison Pill's father has been cheating on her mother for many years, especially since we kept hearing about her parents in the pilot. I hated the first half, but it got better once they got to the news part of the show and started to try and break the story (memories of Studio 60 which was good when it was about a TV show and not when it was randomly about the war in Afghanistan). I think it's kinda a copout to have Will McAvoy as a moderate Republican, which I really think was done only so Sorkin can have a bigger soapbox to stand on. __________________ Top 10 Songs of the Year 1955-Present (1976 Added)* Franchise Portfolio Draft Winner Fictional Character Draft Winner Television Family Draft Winner Build Your Own Hollywood Studio Draft Winner

06-25-2012, 03:23 AM	#4
chadritt High School Varsity Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA	Loved it. It certainly helped that I was stationed in Venice LA with the shrimp boat fishermen for 6 weeks so I know what this story meant but MAN I loved that premiere. Last edited by chadritt : 06-25-2012 at 03:24 AM.

06-25-2012, 09:14 AM	#6
spleen1015 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003	I thought it was awesome, very entertaining. __________________ Why choose failure when success is an option?

06-25-2012, 05:34 PM	#12
larrymcg421 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Georgia	__________________ Top 10 Songs of the Year 1955-Present (1976 Added) Franchise Portfolio Draft Winner Fictional Character Draft Winner Television Family Draft Winner Build Your Own Hollywood Studio Draft Winner

06-25-2012, 05:53 PM	#13
whomario Pro Starter Join Date: Jul 2007	full pilot made available by hbo, youtube link : www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4ZhFDFYvE __________________ “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” Last edited by whomario : 06-25-2012 at 05:53 PM.

06-25-2012, 01:36 AM	#2
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	I liked it. I generally do like Sorkin's work, except his characters are sometimes a bit...off. Like with the episode tonight. When things were getting hectic and everyone was rushing to get the show together, the main character stops and yells "Hold on!.......seriously, I have a blog?" That character doesn't strike me as the type of person who, after spending the vast majority of the day pissed off, is going to just crack a joke like that. He seems like a smart ass. He'll be sarcastic when he can. But to just stop everyone and make a joke like that....didn't seem like him. Sorkin forces all of his characters to make out-of-character jokes from time to time. If he thinks it's funny, he'll make his characters say it, whether it's in-character for them or not. That's generally the issue I have with most of his characters. They all have a layer that is unique to them, but then he places another a layer on top of them. That second layer is the same for all of his characters. Eventually they all talk the same, make the same jokes, etc. But, that complaint aside, I loved Sports Night, I liked the West Wing and I'm sure I'll enjoy this show. That they are having it set a few years in the past and using real past events....I'm not sure about that either. It's easy to make your characters sound awesome when you know all of the facts of a real event. Plus, we'll know the outcome of the events beforehand too so we'll know if the characters are making a mistake or not. So I guess we'll see how that turns out. I'm also wondering which character will get the occasional episode where they narrate the episode while writing an email....

06-25-2012, 08:06 AM	#5
Logan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: NYC	Passed on it due to the generally negative reviews but I'll probably end up watching the premiere on demand soon. I did read that it was by far the best of the four episodes sent out to reviewers.

06-25-2012, 09:36 AM	#7
Suicane75 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ	When Sorkin is on, he's moving, thought provoking and pretty damn brilliant. But when he's off, even slightly, it can veer into silliness. I saw some of both in the premiere episode. I'm going to keep watching but as Larry pointed out, if you've watched any of Sorkins shows before you aren't really watching anything new, and I'm not sure I'm up for Emily Mortimor playing Dana Whitaker.

06-25-2012, 09:39 AM	#8
Suicane75 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ	Oh, and I'm sure Sam Waterston is a great actor or he's just old, but his character frightened the hell out of me.

06-25-2012, 11:22 AM	#9
GrantDawg World Champion Mis-speller Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Covington, Ga.	I enjoyed it. It is very much a Sorkin clone, but it was a fun watch.

06-25-2012, 09:45 PM	#14
kcchief19 Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Kansas City, MO	That Sorkinisms Supercut is awesome. I'd like to think that Sorkinism fit into one of three categories. First are simply phrases that he likes -- more and more we expected less and less from each other, for example. The second group is filler material, bridges, transitions, etc. that is just part of his style. But I think the largest group is the lazy group. The guy is notorious on his TV shows of doing too much of the writing himself and being behind schedule. That was the driving reason for him getting axed from The West Wing and a factor in ABC not renewing SportsNight. As a result, he steals from himself. I've noticed his films tend to have less lazy writing than his TV scripts, which tend to pull materials from the movies and plays. If he has time to work on The Newsroom, we may see less Sorkinese.

06-25-2012, 10:18 PM	#15
terpkristin Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2003 Location: Ashburn, VA	I recorded it. Bummed the first episode isn't on HBO On Demand yet. I recorded the HD version but wanted to watch in my room, which is a standard def box. I know I could probably get it on my iPad via YouTube or HBO Go, but wanted to watch on a slightly bigger screen. Oh well, always tomorrow. /tk __________________ GO TERPS! https://www.flickr.com/photos/terpkristin https://twitter.com/terpkristin

06-25-2012, 10:31 PM	#16
Scoobz0202 Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dayton, Ohio	Just watched the first episode, and I definitely enjoyed it. What have the criticisms of it been? The only thing I am unsure of is if Jeff Daniels will be able to pull it off.

06-25-2012, 11:36 PM	#18
Bad-example College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: san jose CA	I'm curious about this one but I'm gonna wait until a few episodes stack up before diving in.

06-26-2012, 08:15 AM	#19
Logan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: NYC	I watched it last night and enjoyed it. The pacing was good but I can see it getting exhausting over time. The whole part about the Sr. Producer getting calls from the two best people on the entire planet to break that story was weak though and I hope they don't repeat those angles.

06-26-2012, 10:08 AM	#20
Peregrine Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Cary, NC	Definitely enjoyed it - I am a huge Emily Mortimer fan so that just seals the deal.

06-26-2012, 11:49 AM	#21
RendeR Coordinator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY	Good god I'm only halfway through the supercut and I want to hang myself __________________ http://wotlabs.net/s...8/signature.png http://wotlabs.net/sig_dark/na/banichi18/signature.png

06-26-2012, 01:37 PM	#22
BillJasper Pro Starter Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Northern Kentucky	Started strong, finished strong but the middle third was tedious to get through. __________________ The Confederacy lost, it is time to dismantle it.

06-26-2012, 02:24 PM	#23
Pyser Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Los Angeles	felt long to me but i thought daniels was really good. ill keep watching.

06-28-2012, 12:36 PM	#24
panerd Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: St. Louis	Enjoyed the first epiosode a lot. Just saw an ad though when I was watching another show and it looked like Daniels was about to break the Gab Giffords story. I hope this doesn't end up being the genius that is always in front of the news because "he doesn't play by the rules" and seeing how this is set in the past it looks like it might be headed in that direction. We will see but HBO rarely lets me down.

07-02-2012, 12:12 PM	#25
Suicane75 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ	So the 2nd episode left me.......bewildered? Some of it was really awesome, mostly the scenes on air and that revolved around Daniels. Some scenes were insufferable, mostly the ones that involved the young girl. And some scenes left me wondering how they made air since they are pretty much EXACTLY scenes from earlier Sorkin works. While Larrys clip above was humorous and telling, I was amazed how much of this episode was lifted directly from stuff he's already done. I guess if you've never seen West Wing or SportsNight it would hit you differently but as someone who watched them both religiously, I came across completely unimpressed and downright irritated by at least 30% of the episode. And I'm not even talking about the fact that the same character types are being used, but by the lifting of almost entire scenes.

07-02-2012, 03:07 PM	#26
kcchief19 Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Kansas City, MO	My review of the second episode isn't quite as harsh but I don't think it's widely off mark either. There were certainly some scenes and dialogue you knew what was coming if you know Sorkin's work. This episode felt to me that like Sorkin is still not quite ready to write a full 60-mintue show yet as opposed to a 42-minute show with commercials. The first episode was essentially a double-episode or a pilot movie. I'm guessing the shooting script was closer to two hours and they simply edited it down. This episode seemed padded. Scenes went on much longer than they needed to be. I think if you edited this episode down to 42 minutes, you'd have a great episode. The scene where Maggie and Jim go back and forth regarding the pre-interview for Brewer was agonizing. Forget the "realism" of that scene in a newsroom -- a person with Maggie's experience would never give her boss that much pushback. And they certainly wouldn't do it in the middle of a cube farm with everyone virtually paying no attention. Unless on WW or SN they would transition scenes to offices, editing bays, etc. so there wasn't this awkwardness.

07-02-2012, 03:09 PM	#27
kcchief19 Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Kansas City, MO	Funny, I was looking at IMDB and just discovered that Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) as a youth played Tyler, the teenager volunteer who was helping Josh, Toby and Donna try to catch up with the plane and get back to DC after they got left behind by the motorcade during the campaign stop in Indiana.

07-02-2012, 03:12 PM	#29
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	15 minutes in, and I was tired of being preached at. I thought the episode was terrible (not solely because the preaching, but annoying me the first 15 minutes didn't help me get into the last 45 minutes, which sucked all around anyway.) Last edited by sabotai : 07-02-2012 at 03:14 PM.

07-02-2012, 03:42 PM	#30
Solecismic Solecismic Software Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Canton, OH	I was looking forward to it, with my journalism background. I lasted about 12 minutes. First, the preaching was annoying - I thought it was a disingenuous and simplistic use of statistics, straight from what we call the Daily Kos PoV. There are more cogent and honest ways to make that kind of argument. And, second, which is even more of a killer for me, there was heavy use of vomit cam. Sorkin was pretty good about that with SportsNight, which I loved. I think Sorkin is a great writer, but, for me, it's a big whiff.

07-02-2012, 03:45 PM	#31
Suicane75 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ	Go back and watch the scene in SportsNight where Natalie gets mad at everyone because they're babying her after she gets assaulted, just replace her and Jeremy with Maggie and Jim. The email thing was absurdly telegraphed to the point of cringe. If they had cut everything from the entire episode except Daniels scenes I think it would have pretty good.

07-02-2012, 03:47 PM	#32
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	Yeah - Daniels is definitely carrying the show / the only interesting character. I guess the ex-wife is second. But everyone else ::cringe:: GTFO

07-02-2012, 03:50 PM	#33
Suicane75 Coordinator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ	It's literally a mix tape of SportsNight & West Wing. Mix tape isn't even the right word, it's a mash up or whatever those things are called where they layer one artist over the other. And it's not impressive.

07-02-2012, 11:43 PM	#36
Simbo Klice High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2009	I'm officially out on this show. The mass e-mail was the most contrived thing I can recall watching on TV. Even without that, I was reaching my breaking point with the super snappy dialogue and the cases of extreme happenstance (my college roommate and sister work for BP and Halliburton or whoever, I used to date the governor's aide and he happened to misspeak in the exact way that allowed me to make a witty crack at his expense and piss him off to ruin our chances of an interview)... Just look at that in print and it's overwrought. This show is begging to be ripped apart in an SNL skit.

07-03-2012, 03:52 AM	#37
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	I'm probably going to wait til this season is over and do a hatewatch marathon of this.

07-03-2012, 12:33 PM	#38
GrantDawg World Champion Mis-speller Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Covington, Ga.	This episode was quite preachy, and predictable. Still, the interaction between Daniels and Mortimer is excellent. Last edited by GrantDawg : 07-03-2012 at 12:58 PM. Reason: Bridges....Daniels. I always do that.

07-03-2012, 12:37 PM	#39
timmynausea College Starter Join Date: Dec 2002	I like this way more than Studio 60. There have been some annoying moments and certain scenes and sequences have dragged on for too long, but Jeff Daniels is awesome, and I still like it on the whole.

07-03-2012, 12:50 PM	#40
Sweed College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2003	As someone that has never watched any of Sorkin's work, nor did I even know his name before reading this thread, I am enjoying the show. Too me it's still a bit in the "establish the characters" time frame. Loving Daniels and willing to give the rest of the cast time to catch up\establish their character. Agree episode 2 was long-winded but I guess, again as someone unfamiliar with Sorkin, I attributed that more to getting the show established than shoddy writing. I'll probably hang around for the whole season and see how it develops.

07-03-2012, 05:23 PM	#42
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	I didn't watch enough West Wing to be bugged by it, so I guess I think it's alright, although the last episode seemed, as noted earlier, like it had too much "filler" and would have benefitted from being a lil shorter.

07-05-2012, 11:19 AM	#43
cubboyroy1826 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jun 2002	Really enjoyed the first episode and have not seen the second episode. Sure the start was a little preachy but I like the idea of going back to cover events that have happened but will see how it plays out in other episodes.